


Green eyed monster

by Maegfen



Category: Zoo (TV)
Genre: F/M, Prompt Fic, post 2x05
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-27 00:01:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7595464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maegfen/pseuds/Maegfen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Sometime between breaking the hug and starting his examination of the unconscious polar bears, Mitch loses sight of Jamie." - prompt fill set post 2x05</p>
            </blockquote>





	Green eyed monster

**Author's Note:**

> A lovely anon on tumblr prompted me to write a jealousy scene between Jamie and her new friend and this is what I came up with. Posting before 2x06 because who knows what's going to happen now that the dynamic duo have been reunited :D

Sometime between breaking the hug and starting his examination of the unconscious polar bears, Mitch loses sight of Jamie. They’d only shared a few brief words before he’d been encouraged by Dariela to start working on the bears, and Jamie had been pulled into the arms of both Jackson and Abe. Mitch wonders, as he extracts another vial of blood, if either of the other men had broken the news about Chloe yet. He panics slightly then, not having Jamie in his eye line, so Mitch twists and looks back towards the school, squinting through the smoky surroundings of Caraquet.

He spots her then, seemingly cheerful _(she's still not been told, still doesn't know..._ _)_ and still wearing that ridiculously thick coat. Mitch sits back on his haunches and just observes her, happy to take a few seconds away from his task now that he has the opportunity. Jamie’s chatting animatedly to the young man next to her, the same one they’d found hiding in the back of the rusting school bus once the excitement from the reunion had worn off and they’d done a more thorough check of the area.

Mitch takes a moment to observe Jamie, running his eyes over her, calculating the changes that have occurred in the six months since he saw her last. He can tell she’s lost weight, despite the huge coat that she wears, and there’s something different in her eyes; a hardness to them he hadn’t seen when she’d kissed him all that time ago on the plane. He wonders, briefly, if he’s changed too, if there’s a difference in him from the loss of Chloe, from the fading hopes of a cure, from the constant dependence on having a drink in hand. As if to check, Mitch takes his glasses off with one hand and rubs the other over his face, feels the worry lines and sweat and scars that are starting to amass across his skin. He gets a sudden feeling that he’s too _old_  for this and he instantly puts his glasses back on, frowns and concentrates on the task at hand. Feeling melancholy right now is _not_ going to help anyone; he can wait until he’s sitting next to the fully stocked bar to mull over his life choices.

Mitch leans over to take another sample of blood from the tranquilized bear, adding the test tube to his kit carefully, before he looks up to reassure himself that Jamie’s  _still_ there. Mitch figures he’s acting a little like a love struck teenager, but he hasn’t felt this way for a _long_ time, and now that he’s found her again he’s reluctant to let Jamie go again.

It’s quite surreal really, he reflects, as he presses his hand to the polar bear’s side to check it’s breathing, the fact that Jamie’s _back_. The last 24 hours have been hard; losing Chloe, seeing Allison, finding Jamie. It hasn’t all quite sunk in yet, and Mitch yearns to be able to hop back on board the plane, settle down with a glass of scotch and maybe just spend some time with Jamie before getting some well earned rest.

She’s still talking to the young man; _Logan_ , according to Jackson. Mitch only knows a couple of details; that Jamie and this Logan guy had been travelling together, that they’d arrived in Caraquet the previous day, and that Jamie had been willing to sacrifice her life to save Logan and the other young girl, Maddie, who is still trying to overcome a panic attack and is currently being calmed down by Abe. Dariela, still mindful of Jackson, is scouting through the school trying to find other survivors of the attack; Allison’s promised that anyone left alive will be evacuated with immediate effect to Vancouver to recover. Everyone’s getting on with their own jobs, like the good little ‘saving the world’ team that they are.

Mitch takes the final round of samples and packs up his kit, eager to get back on the plane and just _leave_. He looks up as he’s packing, hopeful of catching Jamie’s eye and maybe encouraging her to accompany him to either the lab, the kitchen or the bar for a conversation, whichever one she fancies first. She probably needs a medical check up at some point too; he can tell she’s limping but he’d not had the opportunity to ask how bad the apparent injury is.

Jamie chooses that moment to lean over towards Logan, and the younger man puts his arm round her shoulder before ducking his head down to ask her a question. Jamie’s head turns to look at Mitch, and he gives a, quite frankly, silly little wave, before he continues to watch. Jamie turns her attention back to Logan, practically beams at him and nods enthusiastically in answer to whatever question he’d asked.

She doesn’t wave back at Mitch.

Mitch feels his heart tighten.

It _had_ been over six months after all. Six months since the kiss and a good few weeks since they’d last spoken. Even then they hadn’t mentioned what had happened on the plane, as if it was some silly little moment, a result of adrenaline and vodka and relief at being alive and not having been mauled by leopards.

She’s a good 15 years younger than him, Mitch realizes. He watches Jamie as she talks with Logan, her shoulder now bereft of the young man’s touch, but her hand rests on the man’s forearm instead as Dariela arrives and joins the conversation, gesturing between the two of them. Jamie’s 15 years younger and more suited to someone like Logan and they were bound to have bonded over their experiences in the Canadian wilderness. How could he, an over the hill, surly single father and boring scientist hold a candle to a younger, better looking man? Mitch figures, begrudgingly, that it’s no wonder Jamie’s been so focused on Logan; there's really no competition...

The jealousy pools low in his stomach, a deep pulse of sudden annoyance at the sight of the two younger people as they chat and finally head towards the plane. Together. Without him.

Mitch stands, feeling foolish, in the middle of the field surrounding by slowly waking polar bears. The envy spikes in him again and he glares as Logan, still walking beside Jamie, has the audacity to look back at him and _smile_. Mitch huffs in anger, clenches his fists at his side, knuckles turning white over the handle of his kit. He makes a decision in that precise moment, decides to leave Jamie to her new beau and try not to act like a love-sick fool; he’s better than that now.

Probably.

He doesn’t notice Jamie look back at him with a frown before she boards the plane, Logan in tow and now deep in conversation with Dariela.

 

* * *

 

“So you’re Mitch?”

The voice takes him by surprise, focused as he is on testing the polar bear DNA for a triple helix. So far it’s not looking positive, and he’s annoyed at the fact that he can’t add a fifth animal to his list of anomalous animals. Mitch lifts his eyes from the microscope and fumbles slightly when placing his glasses back on his head. He frowns at the stranger who’s standing in the doorway to the lab. Beyond the lab’s visitor, Mitch can see Jamie in the kitchen, scoffing down what must be her sixth omelet provided by Abe. She’s been told about Chloe now, Jackson had made sure of that, and she’d stopped by the lab briefly to give him a half-hearted hug in grief and to ask him to check over her foot _(with the_ missing _toe for God_ _’s sake…)_ in the morning before disappearing to get some food.

Mitch knows he’s ignoring the other man, and it takes him a few seconds before he decides to answer.

“That’s me,” he starts, before he realizes that he sounds quite confrontational. Despite what he’d seen between this guy and Jamie earlier, there’s no excuse for being rude, despite it being his go to means of approach. Even now, Mitch can feel the ugly head of jealousy rise in his bloodstream; everything about the young man in front of him irritates him. Memories flash through Mitch's mind; visions of his arm over Jamie's shoulder, the smug smile as they'd boarded the plane. Mitch clutches an empty test tube in his hand before he continues, an attempt to keep his mind off his anger and envy.

“You must be Logan.”

The younger man nods and takes a seat across from Mitch, his eyes scanning the multitude of equipment.

“I am.”

An awkward silence falls between the two of them. Mitch feels the jealousy continue to grow, before he makes the effort to ignore it. He’s just thankful Jamie’s back, and if Logan makes her happy, then he’s willing to put up with the younger man’s presence as long as he can see her smile.

“She didn’t stop talking about you, you know,” Logan suddenly says, his hands drifting over the cool steel of the table top, as if he isn’t sure what to do with them.

Mitch, having returned to his microscope, looks up again.

“Huh?”

Logan smiles a little before he elaborates. He rubs a hand over his closely shorn head before he gestures towards the kitchen and the woman who’s within it.

“Jamie. She spoke about you all the time, y’know, out there. Since the moment we met and started travelling together, she’d been convinced that you guys would be coming to her rescue. That _you_ would be coming to her rescue.”

Mitch frowns at him, tries to ignore the urge to punch the guy in the face. Instead he decides to glare at the younger man before replying.

“Of course we’d have come to find her, Jamie’s one of us.”

Logan shakes his head.

“I know that man,” he says, and laughs at Mitch’s expression. “But after…after the toe incident, when things got _really_ bad, she still believed in _you_ Mitch. Even came right out and said that if anyone would find her it would be you.”

The younger man sighs and looks back into the kitchen.

“She had a lot of faith in you. Still does.”

Mitch scoffs.

“She’s my friend,” he starts, following Logan’s gaze back into the kitchen. “There’s little I wouldn’t do for my friends.”

Logan, again, shakes his head.

“It’s more than that Mitch. You’re…” he pauses, looks for the right words. “You’re a lucky man. Honestly, I had no chance with Jamie even if I’d been interested; her sole focus was getting back to you guys, to _you._ _”_

Mitch isn’t sure how to respond to that, because he’s not a teenager, doesn’t need, doesn’t _want_ , clarification of Jamie’s feelings to come from anyone but Jamie.

Jamie, seemingly sensing that she’s the topic of conversation, chooses that moment to look up. She seeks out Mitch first, beams at him when they make eye contact. She waves. Mitch waves back. He feels the jealousy he’s been feeling since the moment he saw her and Logan together dissipate just a little.

“You don’t need to be jealous either,” Logan suddenly says, causing Mitch to look up at him, a contrary statement on the tip of his tongue. Logan holds up a hand to silence him. “I saw the looks you were giving me back out in Caraquet, don’t deny it. But honestly, I know when a woman’s not interested, and when she’s talking pretty much non-stop about ‘Mitch this’ and ‘Mitch that’ I take that as a pretty sure sign she’s got it bad. We had each other’s backs out there for a while,” he continues, as Mitch’s gaze remains steadfast on Jamie, “but I don’t think whatever experiences Jamie and I shared are anything compared to the ones you two have since this whole animal apocalypse started.”

“Right,” Mitch says, finally pulling his eyes away from Jamie, who’s now returned to her conversation and meal with Abe. He suddenly remembers lions and leopards, birds and bears, held hands and kisses...

“I’d like to think of Jamie as a friend,” Logan continues as he leans back against the lab table, “but that’s _it_. She’s only got eyes for you Mitch, and I’m pretty sure, just from watching you the last couple of hours, that the feeling’s mutual. I know it’s been months for you guys, but I think you should probably, I dunno, go and speak to her. I think she’d like that.” He suddenly sighs, yawns, stands. “I’m gonna head to bed; the scary Army Ranger said there was a spare bed somewhere upstairs and God do I need a mattress and a blanket right now.”

Mitch watches as the younger man walks off without another word, stares after him trying to process just what it was the young man had told him. Mitch realizes that maybe he'd been hasty in feeling jealous, that maybe he should have just taken the time to  _speak_ to Jamie before making assumptions, that maybe she's thought of him over the last few weeks as often as he has of her. 

Deciding that there's really only one way to find out, Mitch quickly makes sure that the last polar bear sample is put away carefully before he looks to the kitchen again. Jamie’s still sitting at the counter, although Abe seems to have disappeared. She catches his eye, and waves a bowl of ice cream and a bottle of vodka at him in something of an invitation, a quirk of her eyebrow enough to confirm his suspicions.

He nods, smiles and wanders off towards the kitchen, a lighter feeling settling in his chest.

They’ve got some catching up to do…

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think; comments and kudos make my day :)


End file.
